26 Wires

 

6/17/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

A woman came out of the house next to where I was standing. After admiring my sketch in progress, she looked up at the scene I was sketching.

“Don’t put in all those ugly wires!” she warned me sternly. “I counted – there are 26 wires at this intersection!”

You can see how far that suggestion went. 😉

Technical notes: I’m pretty pleased with my proactive thinking and planning (a rare occurrence) on this one. Almost always, I paint the sky after I’ve drawn all the trees and other elements against the sky, which requires fussy cutting around those elements with the paint. I do this because: 1. I usually don’t remember to paint the sky first. 2. When I do (rarely) remember, I have to wait for the sky to dry completely before I can draw over it, which annoys me.

This time, I had drawn all the trees first as usual. Then I used a dark purple non-soluble Derwent Drawing pencil to draw the fence and street shadows. It occurred to me that I could draw the utility poles and all those wires first – before the sky. Then I painted right over the non-soluble lines. No smearing and no waiting for the sky to dry! That sequence was an ideal use of mixed media for strategic purposes.

Volunteer Park Water Tower

 

6/16/26 Volunteer Park

The first time I encountered the Volunteer Park water tower, I was with my Brownie troop in second grade. We all climbed up to the observation deck, which has a unique view of the city. Built in 1906, the tower is still part of the city’s water system. The reservoir is no longer in service, but the standpipe, which holds 883,000 gallons of water, is still in use.

The water tower up close

It’s been a few years since I last climbed up there. On a stunningly beautiful afternoon with temps in the delicious mid-70s (my outdoor temperature sweet spot), I wasn’t motivated to climb it. Instead, I went looking for different views of it. First I found the peek-a-boo view (top of post) of its conical top through many layers of trees (which has lately become a favorite sketching subject).

Then I walked around to the tower’s opposite side and made a small sketch of it up close (at left). I was so close, in fact, that the conical tower isn’t even visible from this angle.

Color notes: Two of the green Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons in my current daily-carry palette recently broke. While pencil tips can break from drops on the pavement, at least they can be sharpened easily. When crayons break, they become too short to use easily – once because they are difficult to hold, and again because they disappear into my crayon holder, out of sight. I’m now trying to find a crayon extender so I can comfortably use the stubs again.

It was as good an opportunity as any to pick out some new greens, both in crayons and in water-soluble pencils (Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle and Derwent Inktense). This is the first sketch using the new greens.

I also returned to my long-time favorite Middle Cobalt Blue Neocolor II for summer skies. As I yammered about recently, I like to use whatever blue I’ve chosen for the sky in at least one other place in the sketch to pull the palette together. It’s a bright, warm blue that doesn’t apply well as a shadow hue, but when mixed with the darkest green, it blends in without shouting “blue.”

So Many Faces, So Little Time

 

5/17/26

5/17/26

Many people tend to travel on the same commuting routes repeatedly to work or school. I’m not very regular – I take whatever train or bus will get me to my social or recreational activities – but I sometimes wonder if I’ve ever sketched the same person twice.

5/19/26

5/23/26

I’d like to think that once I sketch a face, I’ll remember it the next time I see it, but I doubt I would. So many men I draw look and dress similarly. Women tend to look more unique than men, but I wouldn’t necessarily remember them, either.

5/27/26

5/27/26

Unlike a place I’m sketching, I often have only the distance between two stops to observe and draw a face. When I begin one, I generally assume they’ll be leaving within minutes, so  the pressure is on to capture as much as I can before they do. And the pressure of not knowing how long I have is a large part of what I enjoy about sketching fellow commuters. Unfortunately, that kind of sketching doesn’t store the face in my long-term memory.

5/27/26

6/7/26

6/10/26

6/13/26

Cool Green Lake on a Hot Day

 

6/14/26 Green Lake walking path

Unusual for mid-June, temps were expected to climb to the mid-80s on the day of USk Seattle’s outing to Green Lake. I encouraged anyone (including myself) who got overheated to retreat to the air-conditioned public library. Almost everyone opted to stay at the lake, though, where a strong, cool breeze and plenty of huge shade trees kept us comfortable. I was surprised by how pleasant it was all afternoon, despite the heat.

Green Lake

Purely conjecture, of course, but something about their 
body language made me think they were on a second date.

Filled with sunbathers, the beach looked like Malibu, while swimmers, paddleboarders and kayakers took to the water. It looked and felt like summer!

Since I’m such a frequent Green Lake visitor, the throwdown was especially fun for me. It’s like seeing the familiar through fresh eyes again.

A great turnout, even on a blistering day!

A Walking Tour of Chinatown-International District

 

6/13/26 A lion dance kicks off our walking tour of Chinatown-International District.

Taha Ebrahimi

Mature, urban trees can witness many changes in a neighborhood. Historian Cynthia Brothers of Vanishing Seattle and Taha Ebrahimi, author of Street Trees of Seattle, offer an intriguing walking tour of Chinatown-International District, one of Seattle’s oldest neighborhoods. I joined about a dozen others last Saturday afternoon on the first in a series of such tours. All six free tours, supported by local cultural grants, sold out within 90 minutes, and more than 500 people are now on the waiting list! I was lucky to grab a spot!

Gathering at the historic Panama Hotel Café, where I’ve sketched many times, the tour began with an energetic lion dance performed by martial arts organizations. Then, for the next two hours, we made 15 stops around the District for notable buildings and trees. Cynthia and Taha told many fascinating stories about people, the community and the trees that make up this diverse neighborhood.

You may recall that I used Taha’s book a couple of years ago as my own walking and sketching guide to street trees in Maple Leaf and other neighborhoods. It was illuminating to hear the stories in person of seven specific CID trees that she had written about.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to listen, observe, sketch and take notes, all at the same time! My pages are a scribbly mess, and my notes are probably indecipherable, but they serve as a great memory of an informative and fun afternoon.

A really special part of the tour was visiting Connie Chen's shop, Sun May Co., located in Canton Alley. Her family has owned the shop since 1911.

Connie Chen at Sun May Co.

After the tour, some of us went to Bush Garden, Seattle's second-oldest Japanese restaurant, which recently moved to a new location. We were offered a Mar-tree-ni, a special cocktail designed just for us!

Cynthia Brothers talks about a mural dedicated to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.

Group photo courtesy of Taha and Cynthia.

Bad Sketches

 

6/6/26 cloud study (photo reference)

Sometimes sketches just go bad. What can I learn from them?

Weather forecasters recently warned of rain, high winds and thunderstorms. The wind was real, but the rest was over-hyped. Walking through Maple Leaf Park, wondering if I would be caught in the impending storm, I saw a foreboding wall of dark clouds building to the south. I snapped a quick photo and hustled home.

Although I’ve tried painting clouds with watercolors, I’d never tackled them with Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons. Initially, I used my usual wet-in-wet “licking” technique. Then while the page was still wet, I went in directly and aggressively with dry crayons. I should have known better, but I used a Hahnemühle Akademie student-grade sketchbook, which doesn’t hold up quite as well as the 100 percent cotton version that I’m used to. The result (above) is not a disaster, but it’s not the look I was going for. I’ll try again sometime in the cotton book and see if that’s better.

The sketch shown below, made on location, was a mistake of a different sort. I was happy to see that the Green Lake Starbucks had opened their rooftop deck for the season. In the distance, these sunlit trees caught my eye. I was so eager to go straight in with color that I failed to think about the composition – which is nonexistent. Even as I began, I was already wagging my finger at myself: I should have done a thumbnail first! When I knew I was in irreversible trouble, I decided to distract myself by working on the murky area behind the trees – maybe the high contrast would help! HA!

6/12/26 Green Lake neighborhood

Someday I’ll go back and try that one again, too.

If I can learn even one thing, a bad sketch isn’t bad at all – just ugly. 😉

Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith Bicolors Special Edition

 

I succumbed: The Caran d'Ache + Paul Smith Bicolors Special Edition

I fell off the wagon. No judging, please.

During a week of high stress and anxiety, I saw that Goldspot Pens had the Caran d’Ache Paul Smith Special Edition Bicolors set in stock, and after months of resisting, I crumbled. Bicolors are my weakness! C’est la vie.

Like Cd’A’s first set of colored pencils in collaboration with British fashion designer Paul Smith (released in 2020), the latest bicolors set features Smith’s design palette and trademark stripes on the tin and sleeve. I must admit that the tin design appeals to me more than the palette. In particular, I like the thin, subtle strip of stripes on the lid’s lip on an otherwise solid black tin.

This is my favorite part of the tin -- the subtle strip of stripes on the tin's lip.

Unlike that first tin, which contained Supracolors, the latest edition contains bicolors – 12 water-soluble pencils (24 colors) and a small watercolor brush. Each pencil is stamped with “Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith” in silver. (It’s intriguing that the 2020 set puts Smith’s name first: Paul Smith + Caran d’Ache. I wish I’d been a fly on the wall when the discussion took place for that change.)

Before I even used the pencils, I was aghast by the factory sharpening: Very messy collars (that’s the type of thing I’ve seen on cheap pencils from China and India) – I don’t think I’ve ever seen any Caran d’Ache pencils that were as badly presented as these. And look at the big chip in the pink one on the left! Shame on you, Caran d’Ache.

Very sloppy collars and a huge chip

The Smith-curated palette is very . . . fashionable, I guess? Unsaturated and sophisticated, it’s a nice counterbalance to the Supracolor set, which has a more vibrant range. Although it’s not at all a range I would pick out for myself, it’s not bad for urban sketching, and it also has a good range of values (ever since my experiments inspired by the wacky Germanier palette, I find myself viewing hues as values as well as temperature). It’s not great for landscapes, though – it’s short on natural greens.

Swatches made in Hahnemuhle Akademie watercolor sketchbook. I used my Prismalo swatch page to identify as many colors as I could. 

Now let’s get to the all-important cores. A couple of months ago when the set was announced, a reader brought an interesting controversy to my attention (see comments at end of this unrelated post). Apparently the new Smith set, along with last year’s Alpine Frost holiday collection, contains student-grade Swisscolor cores. That would be a significant step down from all the previous bicolor sets, which were promoted by Caran d’Ache as containing Prismalo cores. (How insulting to Smith! Perhaps a reflection on the change in branding to put his name after Caran d’Ache’s? The plot thickens.) The reader later reported that when she asked the question directly to Cd’A’s Instagram account, she was told the Smith set actually contained Supracolor cores:

“Just to reassure you, these bi-colour pencils are actually made with our Supracolor leads, not Swisscolor. We hope you’ll enjoy their quality and performance!”

First of all, even without calipers, I could easily see that the Smith cores are too thin to be Supracolors. A few swatches were all it took to convince me that the marketing person who responded to the inquiry was sadly misinformed: These are definitely not Supracolor cores, which are much softer and creamier.

Smith bicolor at left, Supracolor at right: No way are these the same core!

The next question, then, is whether they are student-grade Swisscolor cores or, like the previous bicolor sets, the mid-grade Prismalo cores. I hadn’t used Prismalos in a while, so I refreshed my memory with a few swatches, and they are as I had remembered them: Much softer than the Smith bicolors.

My large set of Swisscolors was dispatched during my downsizing the past couple of years. However, I still have a small set that came with the kids’ travel kit I got a few years ago (a-ha – as silly as that purchase was, it came in handy after all!). I compared a few swatches.

Sample Swisscolor swatches from my large set

The bicolors’ hardness and dryness seem closer to Swisscolors than Prismalos. However, it’s important to look at the washes, not just the dry swatches. Often the pigment content of a water-soluble pencil becomes more apparent in its wash than in its dry state. When I compare the washed bicolor swatches to washed Swisscolors and Prismalos, they look closer to Prismalo. Since we can’t get a straight answer from Caran d’Ache, we may not be able to know for certain, but I’m unconvinced that they are Swisscolors.

Sample Prismalo swatches

Miffed by the drop in quality and Cd’A’s lack of transparency, I still had to make a sketch with them (below). Taking a cue from my recent experiments with trying on the themed Blick Neocolor II palettes, I challenged myself to use as many colors in the Smith bicolor set as possible. Even as an experiment, 24 colors in one sketch are a bit much, and I lost count at some point, but I used at least one side of each bicolor and several of the opposite sides, too. While that’s certainly more colors than I would ever normally use together in one sketch, they don’t look too bad together. I guess Paul Smith knows what he’s doing.

As for Caran d’Ache . . . one disappointment after another.

6/9/26 Paul Smith bicolors in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook (photo reference)